A better way to culture central nervous cells

A more dependable scaffold for neural cell culture

Rat central nervous system cells cultured in the apoE4 protein (right) fare better, with more axons and dendrites than cells cultured in laminin (left). Ironically, apoE4 is associated with the neural deficits of Alzheimer's disease in the body.Credit: Palmore lab/Brown University

A protein associated with neuron damage in Alzheimer's patients provides a superior scaffold for growing central nervous system cells in the lab. The findings could have clinical implications for producing neural implants and offers new insights on the complex link between the apoE4 apolipoprotein and Alzheimer's disease. Results appear in the journal Biomaterials.